


A Black Mark

by wisdomofme



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: FTAngstWeek, FTAngstWeek2015
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-10
Updated: 2015-08-10
Packaged: 2018-04-13 23:08:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4540953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wisdomofme/pseuds/wisdomofme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt 6 of FT Angst Week: Incinerate<br/>It crept up his arm like a brand. But that wasn’t what it was, was it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Black Mark

It crept up his arm like a brand. But that wasn’t what it was, was it?

A brand would be harmless, a puckering of the skin that had once been burned by a white hot piece of metal, but this thing grew. It grew as he slept, fuelled by his ever growing despair and hopeless ness, and as it grew he could feel it like molten lava in his veins.

Natsu stared at the black mark on his right arm, his body still wet and his hair still dripping from his dunk in the river. This was the only chance he had to take the bandage off anymore. When he was alone. He couldn’t even let Happy see him like this.

Let alone Lucy.

A wave of fire spread beneath his skin at the thought of the blonde haired mage, just like it always did. Just laying eyes on her these days was an effort. But she’d notice if he began to avoid her.

To be honest, he was scared that she’d already noticed. Only the other day she had asked him if he wanted Wendy to have a look at his bandaged arm. He knew that the question had only been prompted by concern for him, concern for an oddly lingering injury. But he had managed to stutter back some excuse about not wanting to hassle Wendy about such a small wound. It didn’t affect how he fought anyway.

He was lucky that Charle had agreed with him only moments later as he could tell from the look in Lucy’s eyes that the first seed of suspicion had been planted.

He flinched again and began rubbing his hand along his arm as it throbbed once more. Dark thoughts that didn’t belong to him surfacing in the back of his mind.

_Unnecessary. Fragile. Weak._

“No,” Natsu growled, carefully keeping his voice low even though he wanted to scream. “She’s not weak.”

_You are._

Natsu clenched his eyes shut as his hand clenched around his right arm, almost as if he thought the pain would stop if his nails shredded the mark, and his heart lurched as flashed of memories appeared before his eyes.

Every time he didn’t do something because he knew she wouldn’t want him to.

Every time he was distracted in a fight because she wasn’t in his line of sight.

Every time he glanced across the guild hall and caught the bright curve of her smile and wished that it would never fade-

“Yes,” he panted desperately as he braced himself against the edge of the river. “Yes, I’m weak. But she isn’t! She’s strong, so _strong_. You should fear her.”

_Fear a human? Please._

It was terrifying, the voice in his head. At first it had only been a jumble of thoughts that he knew were not his own, but it had grown. IN the last few weeks Natsu had begun to feel almost as if he was sharing his head with another person. Another person that could hear his every thought, his every secret desire.

Natsu bent down and splashed a handful of cool water over his face, desperately attempting to calm his thoughts, and then thrust his right arm into the river. He would like to say that it help but as the water flowed across his throbbing forearm all it did was allow him to stare at the black mark that spiralled up his arm. The ink black flames curled across his skin, beginning from his wrist and trailing up past his elbow. He didn’t know how he was going to hide it without arousing even more suspicion from Lucy or attracting Wendy’s attention if it continued any higher.

He was scared that if they saw it they would leave him. And he didn’t have the strength to leave again.

Lucy’s betrayed expression appeared in his mind’s eye without his will and he knew exactly what the demon was trying to say.

_I know._

It knew. It had always know.

Natsu Dragneel wasn’t weak, but he did have a weakness. And the demon knew. Images flashed through his mind, promises of what would happen when E.N.D finally entered this world. The destruction of his beloved guild. The death of his family. The incineration of every living thing on the plant.

And the torture that awaited the blonde mage with eyes that had always shone with hope.

For once Natsu could not destroy the threat that loomed before him and, with his once indomitable spirit slowly surrendering before his eyes, Natsu sank lower into the river and wished that he had enough strength to just drown.

**Author's Note:**

> Hmmm, well, this one wasn't very angsty, was it? I guess six stories of angst in a row was just too much. I can feel it, my writing powers are being drained... I can't go on much longer...  
> But there's only two to go! So I'll force myself to write!  
> Thanks for reading!


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